John Cena wanted to do 200 dates in final WWE year

It has been a busy year for John Cena as his career nears its end, but not nearly as busy as he had originally planned. 

In an interview on WWE’s YouTube channel with Tom Rinaldi, Cena said he had originally planned to work 200 dates in 2025, including house shows. “Just to say goodbye to everybody,” he said. “I wanted to try to go everywhere from Perth, Australia, to Mid-Hudson Civic Center, you name it, I wanted to go everywhere I’ve been to just say ‘thank you’ to everybody. 

“And the WWE came back and said ‘Nah, we only need 36 [dates].’”

Cena made it clear how much thought and planning he had put into his schedule, only to learn that the WWE wasn’t interested in running house shows anymore.

“I came to them with pitch decks and specs and ‘this is what I think the projected revenues are,’ not just talking WWE story out of my butt,” he said. “Like ‘Hey I think this is a good business plan’ and they said ‘That’s not our business.’”

“But it got us to here and this is a pretty cool spot to be in.”

Cena’s final match is set to take place at Saturday Night’s Main Event this weekend. He will face Gunther after he won a touranment, defeating LA Knight in the finals on SmackDown.